Harvard’s Blackboard Revolutionaries

HARVARD’S BLACKBOARD REVOLUTIONARIES

Consider this paradox: In American public education, “excellence” is something the masses force on the elite. Most professional educators oppose reforms such as competency testing, but right now these reforms are advancing anyway because parents and politicians are playing unusually aggressive roles. Clearly this situation cannot continue. Eventually the laymen will be distracted by other concerns and the professionals will reassert themselves. If, by then, the professionals have internalized the laymen’s norms, that won’t be so bad. But if professional ideology is unaltered, education will then drift backward.

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Lawrence Uzzell

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HARVARD’S BLACKBOARD REVOLUTIONARIES

Consider this paradox: In American public education, “excellence” is something the masses force on the elite. Most professional educators oppose reforms such as competency testing, but right now these reforms are advancing anyway because parents and politicians are playing unusually aggressive roles. Clearly this situation cannot continue. Eventually the laymen will be distracted by other concerns and the professionals will reassert themselves. If, by then, the professionals have internalized the laymen’s norms, that won’t be so bad. But if professional ideology is unaltered, education will then drift backward.